Product Description
When it comes to motivating people to learn, disadvantaged urban adolescents are usually perceived as a hard sell. Yet, in a recent MetLife survey, 89 percent of the low-income students claimed "I really want to learn" applied to them. What is it about the school environment - pedagogy, curriculum, climate, organization - that encourages or discourages engagement in school activities? How do peers, family, and community affect adolescents' attitudes towards learning? "Engaging Schools" reviews current research on what shapes adolescents' school engagement and motivation to learn - including new findings on students' sense of belonging - and looks at ways these can be used to reform urban high schools. This book discusses what changes hold the greatest promise for increasing students' motivation to learn in these schools. It looks at various approaches to reform through different methods of instruction and assessment, adjustments in school size, vocational teaching, and other key areas. Examples of innovative schools, classrooms, and out-of-school programs that have proved successful in getting high school kids excited about learning are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Love this Book!
This is the best book I have ever read on teaching elementary chorus.Very practical and detailed.This book gives you the tools for a successful choral program and the know how to be asuccessful choral director!

Tested Tips And Techniques
"About The Author
Linda Swears is a music specialist at the Albert Einstein Academy in Wilmington, Delaware.
She has been a music educator for fourteen years, and her outstanding children's choirs have performed on television, radio, and at many professional conferences.

Mrs. Swears has served as a state and division level chairperson for the Music Educators National Conference and is a frequent clinician and workshop leader in the areas of "the child voice" and "children's choirs".

She is a published composer of choral music for children and the author of the children's book, Discovering the Guitar."
[from the book of the back jacket]

"Here is a complete guide to building a successful elementary school chorus, including specific suggestions for organizing the choral program...over 250 activities for teaching children the fundamentals of good choral singing...and TESTED TIPS AND TECHNIQUES for planning and conducting rehearsals and concerts."
[from the book of the front jacket]

Excellent
When I landed a job teaching music, I found myself in the middle of an elemenary school chorus, grades 1 through 6.In college, we were taught how to teachmiddle school/high school students. I had no idea what wouldbe appropriate for elementary students.Thank goodness I found this littlegem of a book.A complete, concise guide with so much help andinformation!Everything from voice ranges to vocal warm ups to diction andmuch, much more!

A hands-on useful tool for the beginner choral teacher
This book is a very practical tool for the beginner elementary school choral director.Most choral books are geared toward the high-school or college choir.This gives you acurate information on childrens voicesappropriate steps for training and a way to keep your students singing thecoorect way while you and they are having fun. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent account of early history of Hawaiian Kingdom
Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii was written during the late 1860s to 1871 by Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau, one of the great native Hawaiian historians of his days. The author probably had many primary sources to write his account of the early days of Hawaiian history, many of the oral sources that is no longer available in our modern period.

The book is quite interesting as it traced the history of Hawaii from the great chief Umi who lived eight generations prior to King Kamehameha I. But the crux of the book really begin with Kamehameha I and ends with Kamehameha III's reign. The story of how Kamehameha I united the the island into a single kingdom is a good one. Arrival of Europeans during that period proves to be highly influential in Hawaiian history. The story ends with how the grip of that kingdom slowly but surely, was slipping away from the native Hawaiians by the third generation after the founding of the Kingdom.

Interestingly, the author himself appears not to noticed this trend since unlike the reader, he doesn't have the benefit of hindsight after the fact. But the book clearly revealed at an alarming rate, how native people of Hawaii and their rulers were slowly losing control of their kingdom. Ironically, the introduction of Christianity led to this situation and that fact was probably overlook by the author because he is a devout Christian himself so he couldn't exactly connect the dots.

The book tried hard to explained all the positive things that the kingdom have done toward their people in their effort to "modernized" and Christianized their people. The author point out the misbehavior of the Hawaiian people prior to the white influence. However, due to European and American imperial powers, rampant diseases and short-sighted policies of Hawaiian rulers, in hindsight, Hawaiian Kingdom appears to be doom. After reading this book, I am now no longer really surprised how the Kingdom of Hawaii fell in the end, over 25 years after this book was completed. The end was long time coming and from this book, any reader can read with hindsight that there was no way to save this kingdom from inevitable annexation by some imperial power sooner or later.

It was also interesting to read how ownership of Hawaiian lands were never in the powers of her people. Most of the lands were controlled by royalty and by the local chiefs who make up a very small percentage of the Hawaiian population.

This book come highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the history of Hawaiian Kingdom and how it slowly fell into ruins. ... Read more

Product Description
Whimsical and nostalgic, Buckaloose looks back into the magic of childhood days in Hawaii through the eyes of a boy growing up with a friend who would later become a local legend.It is a story of discovery and growth in the "hanabaddah days," filled with unique island scents of lemon peel and summer. ... Read more

Product Description
"I learned who I was . . . at Kamehameha."

During the Depression years, J. Arthur Rath spent his early childhood shuttled between relatives and foster parents in Hawai‘i and the mainland while his single mother, Hualani, struggled to make a living. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, his grandparents sent him to the Big Island and Konawaena School, where he heard the Kamehameha Schools boy choir at a school assembly. The performance made a deep impression on Rath, and a year later, in 1944, he entered Kamehameha as an eighth-grade boarder. Thus began Rath’s love affair with an institution that he credits with turning his life around, with giving him and other disadvantaged children of native ancestry—Hawai‘i’s "lost generations"—the confidence and support necessary to make something of themselves. This is the story of that love affair. It is also the story of Rath’s recent battle, together with other alumni, for the integrity of his beloved Kamehameha against the school’s trustees and their organization, the powerful Bishop Estate.

Intelligent and impressionable, Rath spent an idyllic four years at Kamehameha. In a lively talk-story manner, he reminisces about campus life and his classmates, many of whom became lifelong friends and influential members of the Hawaiian community. Years later Rath, a successful retired businessman, would call on these same friends to hold Kamehameha’s trustees accountable for their mismanagement of Bishop Estate’s vast financial holdings and ultimately their failure to carry out founder Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s mandate to educate Hawaiian children. Rath draws on his many personal ties to the school and the estate to provide surprising revelations on the trustees and the "Bishop Estate Scandal," which made headlines daily throughout the mid-1990s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Wish I could return this book
I stumbled on this book while looking for "Broken Trust" after having read a review of that book. After reading the reviews of "Lost Generations" I thought I should order both books. What a mistake. I had hoped for a good telling of the Bishop Trust scandal. This is more of a diary of the life of a Hawaiian than any description of that scandal. If you like lots of Hawaiin slice of life stories then you will probably like this book. If you would like to read a coherent description of the Bishop Trust scandal, then look elsewhere.

Hawaii,,The islands the way we never knew them
A fascinating history/memoir.Charming, entertaining, and a revelation.It covers a side of life and the culture of Hawaii one would never know from the colorful images of TV, movies and tourist attractions. When Hawaii became the 51st state, it was heralded as a mirror of the world of the future.A true rainbow of races, cultures, etc.Mr. Rath's book tells a story of a life that saw little of this future judgement. It is charming in its details of one boy's life, the influence of the missionaries, the repression of the native culture and the power of the Bishop Estate--the good, the bad, and everything in between.Especially interesting were the stories of the Japanese attack and life during World War 2.

Engaging personal story of Paradise lost and redeemed
"Lost Generations" is a personal and engaging story of how the charitable mission of the Bishop Trust to provide educational opportunities to native Hawaiians was corrupted by political appointees and greed but redeemed by the perseverance and resolve of the graduates and friends of Kamehameha Schools. It is a grassroots thriller told in a conversational style of why the mission went awry and the determination of the Schools beneficiaries to save the mission.

True Story Page Turner Thriller
From the foreword to the last page, this amazing true story is a page turner thriller.J. Arthur Rath's beautifully told personal tale intertwined with that of his classmates from Kamehameha Schools and the Bishop Estate scandal is a heart warming and equally wrenching story of reluctant heroes and unscrupulous villains.Although the events take place in Hawaii, the story and its conclusion are universal.The heroes of this book are proof that high integrity and strong personal conviction can overcome even the most overwhelming odds.In an era seemingly devoid of both, this book is a refreshing read.

Move over Lord of the Rings - Here come Pauahi and Oz
Pulitzer worthy non-fiction complete with heros, villans, true love and loves lost, family secrets, forgiveness, pride, and overflowing with the true spirit of Aloha!A book that quite simply will compel you to be the best person you can possibly be and to treat others as all should be treated.

A true story that continues to live even in this week's headlines.The hero's are real.The history is amazing.Learn of old Hawai'i, new Hawai'i, and learn again how your heart sings out loud when good vanquishes evil and the common man rises quietly and with great dignity to do what is right.

Princess Pauahi and Oz Stender - non-contemporary partners - committing all they have and all of their love for the children of Hawai'i, eternally!

This book belongs in every household.Give it to a child and that child will grow to make you proud.Give it to an adult and you might change the world.

Imua. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Thought provoking
In view of the challenge this book has posed for the Western Buddhist community, it was surprising to find but one review for it - on Amazon. com. Published ten years ago (Hawaii Uni Press) the material edited by James Heisig and John C. Maraldo puts Zen in a decidedly critical spotlight, effectively tracing the historical precedents linking Zen Buddhism, the State, Nationalism and - Militarism. Read alongside Daizen Victoria's 'Zen at War/Zen to Senso,' (Weatherhill, 1997), it is obvious that we need to review the ethical bases of Zen and face the fact that it has been put to some distinctly 'un-buddhist' uses. Hence, the rather derisory title -'Rude Awakenings.

While such issues have elicited concern in the Western Buddhist community, the ties between Zen and the martial arts hardly raise an eyebrow in other quarters and even seem to bestow a 'normative' perspective on things. After all, Zen became the adopted religion of the Samurai, the Japanese warrior caste. It is often said that true exponents of Budo see their arts as a way of sublimating aggression. That is probably true of the best sort of Budo practitioners and it would be mean spirited to see the traditional samurai as blood thirsty brigands, who like violence for its own sake.Encyclopaedia Brittanica - surely an objective source, has described the Samurai as one of the most efficient fighting forces known to history, for the most part displaying high mindedness and a strong sense of discipline.

Nevertheless, whatever it meant in Japan's feudal past, the saying 'Zen ken ichinyo' - or that 'The way of Zen and the way of the sword - are the same' has been grossly exploited in the context of modern state power - and indeed, used as a cover to glorify sheer brutality. Like Daizen Victoria's book, the essays found in the present volume explore the way that Buddhist language has been exploited to serve ulterior motives i.e. - to further the self-interest of power groups and ultimately, in the modern context - the State. Moreover, contrary to what might be supposed, this strange alliance and the terms of thinking underpinning it, did not come to an end with the cessation of hostilities at the close of W.W. 2. In modified form, it survived as part of the Japanese corporate mentality - or as a vehicle to help sustain it. Furthermore, elements of it have informed the Kyoto-school of philosophy - which, despite the kudos it has enjoyed in the West, might need to be thought-through, all over again.

Like Daizen Victoria's book, thismaterial is a 'wake-up call' for Western students of Buddhism. Nevertheless, as with the 'Critical Buddhist' movement as a whole, there are points where the arguments in this book become overly generalised and jejune. For instance, one wonders if it makes any historical sense to fault Prince Shotoku's 'Constitution'of 604 A.D. because it didn't function like a modern one? Still, accepting the limitations of feudal society for what they are - or were, it would be fallacious to assume that it has all been a question of base 'yea-saying' in accordance with the hierarchical pecking order. Despite its surface politeness, Hakuin Zenji's long letter to Ikeda, governor of Iyo (Iyo no kame) - which appears in Hakuin's Zenshu under the title Hebiiichigo, was virtually a diatribe and written as an act of social justice. To my knowledge, nothing like it, penned by anyone of eminence in the Japanese Buddhist establishment, found its way to the authorities in the modern era. Bearing this in mind, it seems problematic and somewhat unjust, to draw a line through Japanese history, seeing the old alliance between the Zen establishment and the Bushi/samurai as a precursor to Zen's role in the emergence of modern Japanese state nationalism. Under the Meiji, traditional samurai families were disenfranchised and no longer determined strategy or decision making, a privilege reserved for a centralised high command, whose desire for 'lebensraum' (to be blunt - a wholesale invasion of S.E. Asia) would have seemed incomprehensible to samurai leaders of yore.

In a mytho-poeic sense, perhaps, the ideologues who drove Japan down the road to war in the 20th c. had exploited'traditional' imagery and archetypes. Nevertheless, like Hitler's invocation of the 'volk' - and the Nazi philosophy of 'blut und boden' - the images invoked were hollow caricatures. The causes underlying the rise of modern nationalism are complex, but wherever it has manifested, it has depended upon idealised abstractions. Yet these have been but remotely connected with the realities of the past. 'Emperor worship' has frequently been blamed as one of the sustaining causes of modern Japanese nationalism, but in actual fact, the military government which seized control of Japan in the 1930's had little respect for the Emperor.@Moreover, historically speaking, the exercise of power in Japan has often rested in the hands of a Shogun, rather than the Royal family. In other words, it is has been an arbitrary lust for power, rather than ‚definite social entity or status quo which has invoked trouble. Modern nationalism is very abstract and faceless, hence its need to exploit the past - including religious imagery, in the hope of giving itself substance.We ought to exercise caution here, lest we blame the unworthy deeds - on the worthy, and ignoble deeds - upon the noble./

Prisoners of Time
This is a well-done study of an important question, the legacy of Zen and its political colorations, most tragically during the World War era of this century, that in the process provokes a deeper series of questions about religion, the histories of such, and their relations to social states. If Zen wishes us to escape time then the times and places to do this might end by preventing this, being timebound, reaching nowhere, as a destination. In the end some must have slipped away, but the form of the religion succumbs to history, with the ambiguous or sad ending here described. The Chinese-Japanese legacy of Buddhism is a brilliant creation, unique beyond anything in the more ideological monotheistic religions, but in the end the preemption of Zen by the Nationalist state during the twentieth century requires careful study, not only by historians, but by students of religion. For there is a point after which religions, intended to help people, cease to help them. As the book details the control of Zen by the state began very early, and as with the Constantinian version of Christianity we have an ambiguous cultural entity, distancing itself from the forest renunciations of the original Buddhism.
The studies in this book are invaluable food for thought, and very scholarly snapshots, with an interesting essay on Daisetz Suzuki, the Zen missionary to America. He seems to have sensed the whole problem, and in his detachment slipped away with the treasure to the land of the disorderly and too zany Americans, the next to try their luck with this religion.
It may not be meditation to read this book, but it is worth reading anyway, for it is clear that the history of a religion is not a spiritual reality. One hitchhikes on the form, to slip away in the end...
There is of course a dialectical antithesis: Buddhism, beginning in a forest, became in short order the Indian State...How so?
Perhaps the state might need protection from this other state... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Outstanding scholarship again in print!
I don't know why it hasn't made it into Amazon's inventory yet, so I thought I'd mention that this much cited and excellent piece of scholarship by Indiana University's John McRae is again in print: available in cloth for 42 USD online from University of Hawaii Press. (Sorry, but Amazon does not permit URLs in reviews--just Google to the press's website.)

McRae has a "Southern School" book in the works to look forward to--Zen Evangelist: Shenhui (684-758), Sudden Enlightenment, and the Southern School of Chinese Chan Buddhism. ... Read more

Product Description
Cram schools (in Japanese called juku) are often mentioned in passing as a phenomenon functioning mainly to exacerbate competition and pressure on children, but no thorough study has been carried out of their function and types. It is the author's intention to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of this feature of education, which is not only important in Japan but increasingly so in other parts of the world as well. Her major conclusion is that a clear distinction between different types of juku is necessary so that their function as well as merits and demerits can be properly assessed. Although juku have often been decried as enhancing competition in the Japanese system of schooling, this study also provides evidence that without them, the regular system of schooling would not be able to function. In the modern polarized society that is Japan, juku are taking on a variety of new functions that this study aims to uncover. Part one sets the scene and presents a typology of juku. There follows a general description of the actors, juku, as well as descriptions of existing juku from the identified categories based on personal interviews.The final part discusses implications of the existence of juku in terms of political measures, their relation to particular new features of Japanese education (e.g. the 5-day school week) and the expenses and gains related to the juku. ... Read more

Product Description
In Hawai`i and elsewhere in the tropics, the change in seasons often goes unnoticed. Sun and Rain will help children recognize and appreciate the seasons in Hawai`i by calling attention to subtle details in the world around them. Color photographs vividly illustrating plants, animals, and weather patterns make the book suitable for young children, while older ones will find the clear, simple text engaging and instructive. A section for parents and teachers includes ideas on sharing the book with children of different ages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nice Book
Got the book for my kid's preschool and they really enjoyed it.My son knows the seasons, dry and wet and can recognize the signs by looking at the plumeria trees.The book has great pictures and made an impression on my son.I say, "Yeah!"

Also, I like the fact that I'm supporting a local person's book. ... Read more

Product Description
Quoting actual dialogue, the volume describes modes of speaking in three contemporary Hawaiian communities as children relate to parents, siblings, and peers. It demonstrates in detail the link to educational practice and to point to positive consequences in the handling of cultural differences in language use. ... Read more

Product Description
Highlights commonly accepted accounts of events and personal characteristics of the leader who united separate island chiefdoms into one Hawaiian nation. ... Read more

Product Description
TO HAWAII, WITH LOVEWisecracking Beverly Hills brat Rachel Buchanan doesn-t exactly have an ordinary life. For one thing, she attends Blackthorn Academy, which is secretly a training school for spies. Then there-s her arch-nemesis, who-s convinced that Rachel is this ancient goddess reincarnated to stop his evil plans.It all sounds pretty lame to Rachel. But then she discovers that the bad guy-s trail leads directly to Hawaii-and surely there-ll be some time for surfing in between all the getting kidnapped and leaping out of helicopters-right? ... Read more

Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. ... Read more